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Review by Roger Bishop
"Racism, war, and poverty were heavy burdens, to challenge injustice was an easy burden," writes Andrew Young. In his incomparably rich memoir, An Easy Burden, the civil rights leader/mayor/ ambassador tells of his personal journey from New Orleans where his middle-class parents (his father was a dentist) were not enthusiastic about his decision to enter the ministry. But the main focus of the book is on the civil rights movement where he gives us a unique, sensitive, and candid view of individuals and events.
As a key associate to Dr. Martin Luther King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Young worked throughout the 1960s, often behind the scenes, as strategist and negotiator, and in many other roles as the SCLC sought nonviolent social change in Birmingham, St. Augustine, Selma, Chicago, and many other places. Under the best of circumstances, social change does not come easily. There are always pressures. In this case, segregation was firmly entrenched, and it took careful strategic planning and a different kind of leadership to overcome it. Young explains: "The nonviolent approach is not emotional, although it is deeply spiritual. It is a rational process that seeks to transform, rather than defeat, the oppressor and the oppressive situation. Any kind of emotional outburst -- violence, arrogance, intentional martyrdom -- endangers the process of transformation."
Real life is messy. There was unity of purpose at SCLC but personality clashes and disagreements led to squabbles that threatened that unity. Young writes of particular differences, but he is always aware of the positive contributions made by those with whom he disagreed.
When he was named SCLC executive director in 1964, "I thought of myself as a playmaker on the team; it was my job to keep the ball moving, it was not my job to score media points or call undue attention to myself." Also, as Martin Luther King explained to him, "I depend on you to bring a certain kind of common sense to staff meetings. I need you to take as conservative a position as possible, then I can have plenty of room to come down in the middle when I have to."
The author points out, "The reconciliation and negotiation process was the aspect of SCLC and Dr. King's nonviolent approach that even our supporters least understood. The settlement was always less than people needed. It was less than they deserved. I understood that it was hard to see the value in compromise with a power structure that had caused so much pain in the black community. But compromise and reconciliation were essential phases of a successful movement."
Young devotes considerable space to the FBI harassment of the SCLC and Martin Luther King. He also discusses the often awkward relationship between the SCLC and the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. The presidents wanted to do what they believed was morally and ethically right, but there were always political calculations to be made. Perhaps the best example of this came when Martin Luther King began to publicly attack the U.S. role in Vietnam and President Johnson felt betrayed.
This book -- a perceptive memoir of how far we have come in race relations and yet how far we still have to go -- is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the civil rights movement and contemporary American history. Andrew Young's memoir is outstanding.
Related books that you may want to read are A Way Out of No Way: The Spiritual Memoirs of Andrew Young and Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 by Taylor Branch.
Roger Bishop is Contributing Editor to this publicaton.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.
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